Permanently Delete a User in Entra ID

In case you are managing Users in Microsoft 365, a Deleted User still exists in Soft Delete state for 30 days.
Here’s how you can immediately delete the user permanently!
Please do this when you are entirely sure that you want to delete the User as this a permanent step and won’t get back the User once deleted.

Azure Admin Portal

Here’s how you can access the Azure Portal and then delete the User –

Unlike M365, go to Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com/#home), then look for Entra ID
Then, look for Users.
In Users, go to Deleted Users.
There, you’ll find the Soft Deleted Users, select the User you want to delete and then click on Delete Permanently.
You’ll need to refresh the page after a few moments to see that the User is not gone.

Hope this is useful!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Power Platform self-service analytics Data Export to Data Lake [Preview] | Power Platform Admin Center

January 31, 2023 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft Azure, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center adls gen 2, data export to data lake, Power Platform Admin Center, power platform data export, power platform data export to data lake, self service analytics power platform

Now, you can also export the Analytics Data to Azure Data Lake in order to further extend the derive rich data analytics!
At the time of writing this post, this feature is in Preview (As you’ll also see from the screenshots below)

This is a great feature where you can extract this Data into Data Lake and then further enrich and derive rich Power BI reporting based on your use-case.

In case you are new to understanding Azure Data Lake and pricing, you can review this – https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/solutions/data-lake/?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Data Export (Preview)

In Power Platform Admin Center (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/), here’s how you can setup Data Export –

Navigate to Data Export in Power Platform Admin Center given that you have appropriate rights –
Then, you’ll get to choose amongst the Power Apps or Power Automate data to be exported to Data Lake.
In this example, I’ll choose Power Automate. As I select Power Automate, you’ll see that Tenant-Level Analytics are required and hence, already considered as Yes. If not, you’ll need to Enable Tenant-Level Analytics while doing this step – Here’s another post on how to Enable and Use Tenant Level Analytics –
Now, In the next section you’ll need to choose the Subscription.
Further, select the Resource Group and eventually, the Storage Account as well.

And Storage Account is selected as well.
Once everything looks good, you can click on Create.
In a few moments, this will appear in Data Lake section of the Data Export. It will take up to 24 hours for the data to first start showing in Data Lake.
Once this is completed after about 24 hours, you’ll see the status of the Data Lake data package changed to connected.

Data Export to Data Lake

Let’s look at the Azure Storage Explorer to connect to our Data Lake and see the Power Platform data – In case you are looking to install Azure Storage Explorer, here’s a post – Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer | Getting Started

Once authenticated to the correct environment in Azure Storage Explorer, here’s what you would see in the ADLS Gen 2 (In case you want to create ADLS Gen 2 storage account, you can review this post – Create ADLS Gen 2 Storage Account for Azure Data Lake)
You’ll see powerplatform folder show up.
If you open this folder, since we had chosen Power Automate, it’s folder will be created.
And let’s go in Flows folder to see the data. You’ll find json files of the same. You can double click to open it and it’ll open in whatever editor you have installed.
In this case, I had VS Code, so here’s what the Flow data looks like –
Likewise, you can dig deeper in this data and use this further for your reporting!

Here’s Microsoft Learn Document on the same – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/self-service-analytics?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Here’s Microsoft Learn Docs for Tenant-Level Analytics – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-platform/admin/tenant-level-analytics#how-do-i-enable-tenant-level-analytics?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this helps!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Create ADLS Gen 2 Storage Account for Azure Data Lake

January 29, 2023January 29, 2023 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft Azure adls gen 2, azure data lake, azure data lake gen 2 storage, azure storage account, data lake storage

Here’s how you can create an ADLS Gen 2 Storage for Azure Data Lake!

Resource Group and Storage Account

In case you don’t have a Resource Group already, create one and have all the new Resources including this Storage Account also in this new one.

I have a blank Resource Group called Jan 2023. It is blank and hence, I’ll start by creating Azure Storage in the same.
When in the Resource Group, look for + Create button and it’ll take you to the Marketplace to create Storage Account.
Once in Marketplace, search for “Storage Account” and you’ll see one by Microsoft as below. Click on Create.
Once you click on Create (it may expand and let you click on Storage Account action – redundant, but it is what it is)
Then, enter all the details, make sure the correct Resource Group is selected and give a name (no special characters and it has to be in small caps) to the Storage Account.
Once I click on Next: Advanced, look for Data Lake Gen 2 area in Advanced tab (which would be disabled by default).
Click on Enable Hierarchical namespace to make it Gen 2
Make sure you have checked Enable hierarchical namespace option.
Finally, review all the options you may have made. I’ve not changed anything else to keep it within the context of this blog.
Then, once the button is enabled.
On the final page, it might take a few moments for the Create button to appear. Once everything looks good, click on Create.
It’ll start deployment as any other resource in Azure and you’ll know once it’s completed.
And this will complete in a few moments.
Once this is completed, you can also check in Azure Storage Explorer
Below is how it’ll appear in the Azure Storage Explorer.
In case you are looking to setup and use Azure Storage Explorer, you can check this post – Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer | Getting Started

And your Gen 2 Storage for Data Lake is created.

Hope this helps!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer | Getting Started

January 29, 2023 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft Azure azure storage explorer, install microsoft storage explorer, microsoft azure storage explorer, storage explorer

If you are wondering how to get and setup the Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer – Here’s this post!

Azure Storage Explorer

Here’s how you can download and setup Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer.

Search For Azure Storage Explorer and you’ll see something as below –
Once you open the azure.microsoft.com link, you’ll see the below –
Drop down to select Windows. And the Setup will will be prompted to save on your browser (or directly download based on your browser settings)
And it’ll appear that it has been downloaded to your machine.
Now, click on the Setup and let it start. Accept the Terms if everything looks OK to you, then click on Install
It’ll then ask you where to setup and what it should call on the system. Standard stuff.
Then, installation will begin.
Then, open it up when finished.
Now, this will come up. You are now ready to Sign-In!

Sign In with Azure in Microsoft Storage Explorer

Now, picking up from the step above, here’s how you sign in –

Click on the Sign In with Azure if that’s your case unless you are trying other options in this wizard.
If your Azure is usual one to login, can you simply click on Azure and click Next.
Then, you’ll be asked to authenticate. Enter your credentials and authenticate like you would for any Microsoft Account.
Once successful, you’ll see this and you can close the window.
Now, if you open the App, it’ll detect your Azure Subscription if you have one.
If it looks correct, you can simply click on Open Explorer.
Once opened, you can expand on the Subscription and see all your Storage Accounts.

Hope this helps!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Setting up Billing Policy for Dataverse Environments in Power Platform for Azure Pay-As-You-Go plan | Microsoft Azure

October 31, 2022October 31, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft Azure, Microsoft PowerApps, Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, Microsoft Azure, power apps, power platform billing policy, power platform pay as you go

Pay-as-you-go has been recently announced with Azure and I too wanted to explore this topic myself on my trials Dataverse/D365 Sales environment as well as my Microsoft Azure trial subscription which I started.

Disclaimer: Please note that I’m exploring this topic and sharing as I go on. Hence, I’ll continue to write further topics as I proceed. Please try on your Dataverse trial & Microsoft Azure trial subscription to identify / estimate the costs your actual implementation will incur.

I also recommend going through the below Microsoft Learn Pages for detailed information on pricing and meters of the Pay-as-you-go model –

Detailed Microsoft Docs for Pay-as-you-go: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/pay-as-you-go-overview?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Power Apps Pricing: https ://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/

Pay-as-you-go Meters: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/pay-as-you-go-meters?tabs=image?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Let’s see how we can get started!

Setting up Billing Policy

Here’s how you create Billing Policy in Power Platform –

In Power Platform Admin Center (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/), you can see Policies section. If you expand the same, you can see Billing Policies.
Here, you can start by creating a new Billing Policy
You can give it an appropriate name. And it doesn’t allow you to have spaces.
Next, you’ll be asked to select the Subscription you wan to assign the Billing Policy under.
Notice the error below. My Free Trial Azure Subscription doesn’t have a Resource Group created yet. Hence, this need to be present.
Since at this point, I don’t have a Resource Group under the Azure Subscription I selected, I need to go to Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com/), search for Resource Groups
Since you might not have any Resource Group right away, you can create one.
I’ll just give it a name which I can identify with.
I’ll validate and Create the same in Azure.
Resource Group will be created here.
Now, when I come back to Power Platform, if I reselect the Azure Subscription, I’ll now see that the Resource Group I created is showing up.
I’ll select the same and select United States as the Region.
And click on Next.
In the next steps, I can select which all Environments should be included in the Policy. Then, I can click on + Add to policy.
You can see the Added to policy tab now showing your environment. Once you are satisfied with the selection, you can click on Next.
Final step is to now Review and confirm the policy you are creating.
It’ll take a moment to start provisioning. Then, you’ll see the status as Provisioning.
Once completed, the status will show as Enabled.
Now, when you go back to Azure Portal and open the Resource Group, you’ll find a Deployment show up
Open it up and you’ll see a Deployment created.
And if you open the Deployment, you can see the DataverseBilling which we had set up in Power Platform.
And this point, you are now setup with using Pay-As-you-go plan for your Dataverse environment(s).

Note: Further, I’ll write follow up posts as I explore Pay-as-you-go scenarios and experience myself.

Hope this helps!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Create Azure DevOps Organization in your tenant

October 26, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft Azure azure devops, create org in azure devops, sign up on azure devops

Here’s how you can create Org in Azure DevOps!

Login to DevOps

here’s how you can search for Azure Dev Ops as below –

You can use this URL [https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/devops/] which will take you to the Azure DevOps Home Page –
You’ll see the Sign in to Azure DevOps button as shown below
Once you click on Sign in, you’ll see this screen where you need to enter the name of the Org (which is already pre-populated) –
So, I’ll just click on Continue.
Next, you’ll need to agree to terms.
Then, you’ll be asked to provide a name of the organization for the DevOps, so I’ll enter here as an example based on what my trial Org is named.
Also, you can change where the server location. Finally, enter Captcha and click Continue.
Once I click Continue, next, I’ll see this where it will create the Organization for me.
Once this is completed, I’ll be asked to create the first Project right away –
You can leave it here if you don’t want to create a Project right away. Your DevOps organization has been set up though.
But, as an example – I’ll create my first Project just to show you. So, I’ll enter a sample project and click on ” + Create project“
And once this is created, here’s how it will look in the list of projects. You can open it up and see what all is available –
And this is how the Project itself has by default.

Create Org from Azure Portal

Here’s an alternate way from the Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com/#home) to create your DevOps organization in your tenant –

Search for DevOps in Azure Portal and you’ll see the below option –
And when you go to Azure DevOps organizations, you’ll see the below homepage.
You can then spot My DevOps organization button to show which all DevOps orgs have been created.
If you don’t have any organizations at this point, you’ll be asked to create one just as in the first method shown above –
If you already have at least 1 Org created, you’ll be show the list of organizations in the DevOps which have been created-

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Skip requirement to enter authentication method in M365 Login | Turn off Security Defaults

May 11, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft Azure microsoft 365 administration, security defaults, two-factor authentication

If you newly created a an M365 tenant, this is what you’ll be forced to by to enter authentication methods in this Security Defaults feature –

In most cases, even clicking on Skip for now option doesn’t help and I’m forced to enter an alternate authentication method.
Ideally, for Production purposes, you should keep this turned on. Only if you are on a trial and the tenant you are working on is for learning purposes, it is OK to turn this off.

Turn Off Security Defaults in Azure Portal

Here’s how you can turn off the Security Defaults requirement from the Azure Portal –

Navigate to Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com)
Again, you’ll see this message so you can choose to skip this since we want to disable the Security Defaults.
Then, go to Azure Active Directory
Once in Azure Active Directory, look for the Settings in the left hand pane.
In Properties, at the bottom you’ll see the Manage Security defaults button.
It would be turned on by default (Yes) which you’ll need to switch to No.
Once you switch to No, you’ll need to select either of the below reasons as to why you are switching it off. I just entered N/A in the Others reason, your reason could be different.
Once you Save it, that’s all. Now you can just close the Window and try to Login again.

Logging in without Security Defaults

When the Security Defaults is turned off, you can see that the login screen will no longer ask you to enter an authentication method –

When you enter password.
And when you sign in, you’re no longer asked to enter a method for authentication and you’re already logged in past that step.

Hope this was helpful! Here are some more Dynamics 365 posts which you might be interested in –

Thank you!!

Create Application Users for Dynamics 365 environment | Power Platform Admin Center

March 30, 2022February 7, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Azure Functions, Microsoft Azure, Power Platform Admin Center application users in crm, application users in dynamics 365 crm, Power Platform Admin Center, ppac application users

Here’s how you now set up Application Users in Dynamics 365 CRM from the Power Platform Admin Center instead from the Classic UI and let’s see how the process is eased.

Classic UI

Previously, you used to see Application Users view in the Dynamics 365 CRM under Settings > Security > Users.

But it’s not longer available. Instead, you now go to the Power Platform Admin Center.

Register App in Power Platform Admin Center [PPAC]

Now, once you are in the Power Platform Admin Center, you can go to the Environment section –

First, let’s say this is your App in your Azure’s Active Directory in the App Registrations. And now you want to create an Application User in Dynamics CRM for this App.
Now, you can go to the PPAC (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/) and in Environments, look for your D365 CRM/Dataverse environment.
In Settings, you’ll see Users, expand the same and you’ll see Application Users which is now it’s own separate option.
Now, you’ll see the Registered Apps I have already and you can add from the “+ New App User” button above.
Now, select the + Add an app button
And you’ll see the complete list of all the Apps that are in your Azure’s Active Directory. Select the one your just created and click Add.
And then finally click Create once you Add the App you want to create Application User for.
And now, you’ll see the App added as an Application User for your environment.
Now, you also need to provide Security Roles based on the requirement. Select the App User, and click on Edit security roles once available.
In my case, I’m giving 3 Roles which I need to give and click Save.
Now, I’ll also see how many Roles have been given to the App User.

Hope this was helpful! Here are some more Dynamics 365 posts which you might be interested in –

Thank you!!

Setup Postman to connect to Dynamics 365 CRM using OAuth 2.0 | Azure App Registration

March 6, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft Azure connect postman to dynamics 365 crm, dynamics 365 crm postman, dynamics 365 crm web api, postman dynamics crm connection, testing dynamics crm web api using postman

If you want to test the WEB API in Dynamics 365 CRM using Postman, here’s what you need to do to setup Postman to connect to Dynamics 365’s Web API

There are 2 parts to this setup –

Registering an App in Active Directory.
Configuring Postman to utilize the App to connect to Dynamics 365.

So, let’s look at how we do this!

Register an App in Azure

The first step is to register an App in your Azure’s Active Directory so that you can use it to test using your Postman on your machine –

Go to the Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com/) and the look for or search for Azure Active Directory
In AAD, look for App Registrations.
Now, register a new App in the App Registration
Enter the details of the App Registration so you can identify what the App is for. Since I’m using this for Postman testing, I’ll enter something like – “Postman WEB API“
Also, since in most cases your Azure environment could be different, it’s recommended to select Accounts in any organizational directory (Multitenant), but it’s up to you based on how you can to secure this!
Since, I’m testing on my local machine using Postman, I’ll enter http://localhost

And finally click on Register.
Once this is registered, you’ll see the details like any other Azure resource and look for Client ID and copy the same and save it somewhere temporarily.
Next is updating the Manifest to support this setup.
Set the “allowPublicClient” flag to true and “oauth2AllowImplicitFlow” to true as well.
Once the Manifest is updated, it should look like this –
Final step is to give permissions for Dynamics 365 to this App we just created. Go to API Permissions tab from the left-hand menu and click on + Add a permission button.
Look for the Dynamics CRM option and select it.
Select it and then click on Add permissions.
Once added, you’ll need to Grant Permissions. At this moment when it’s not granted, the Status can be seen as blank.
Select Yes to Grant Permissions.
Once granted, the Status will be updated as follows – the status of Granted for [OrgName] will appear
And we are done setting up the App in Azure Portal to be utilized by Postman to test Dynamics 365 Web API locally.

Setting up Postman

Now that we have the App setup, open Postman and we’ll utilize the above created App to establish a connection with Dynamics 365 CRM using OAuth2.0 –

In your Dynamics 365 CRM environment, capture the OAuth URL in your Customization > Developer Resources section
Enter this in a new Tab in your Postman and if you directly try to test this, you’ll get 401 Unauthorized.
Now, we’ll have to configure the Authorization tab to be able to authenticate into Dynamics 365 CRM using the App registration we created in Azure in steps above.
Now, enter the details we have captured so far –
Token Name – Enter a suitable Token name
Grant Type – Select Implicit if not already set.
Callback URL – The callback URI should be http://localhost based on what we set in Azure in above steps.
Auth URL – Here’s how you can get the Auth URL for your Dynamics 365 environment -> OAuth 2.0 URL for Dynamics 365
Client ID – This should be what you saved above from the Azure App Service. Refer to step #5 in the Setting up App in Azure section above in this post. This should be the Application ID.

Once all this is entered, click on Get New Access Token
Once you click on Get New Access Token, you’ll need to authenticate into the environment as you usually get while connecting from Browser.
Enter credentials and authenticate.
Once this connection and the permissions are correctly validated, you’ll get a message like this –
And it’ll show you this dialog box where you need to simply click on the Use Token button.
You’ll then see the token as below –
And you’re set!! Now, you can simply test using Postman.

Testing using Postman

Now that you are authenticated, you can click on Send and see that you are now able to retrieve the Web API

Hope this was helpful! Here are some more Dynamics 365 posts which you might be interested in –

Thank you!!

OAuth 2.0 URL for Dynamics 365

March 6, 2022 priyeshwagh777 dynamics 365 administration, Microsoft Azure connect dynamics 365 crm using oauth, oauth 2.0

If you are new to using connecting to Dynamics 365 using OAuth 2.0, here’s an Auth URL you’ll need for your external applications / Postman testing of Web APIs in Dynamics 365 CRM.

URL for OAuth2.0 for Dynamics 365 CRM

The URL is: https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/authorize?resource=[URL of the D365 Environment]

In the square brackets, you can put the URL of your Dynamics 365 CRM environment itself like shown below –

And then the URL should be: https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/authorize?resource=https://cft158.crm.dynamics.com/

Hope this was helpful! Here are some more Dynamics 365 posts which you might be interested in –

Thank you!!

D365 Demystified

A closer look at Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Microsoft Azure

Permanently Delete a User in Entra ID

Azure Admin Portal

Power Platform self-service analytics Data Export to Data Lake [Preview] | Power Platform Admin Center

Data Export (Preview)

Data Export to Data Lake

Create ADLS Gen 2 Storage Account for Azure Data Lake

Resource Group and Storage Account

Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer | Getting Started

Azure Storage Explorer

Sign In with Azure in Microsoft Storage Explorer

Setting up Billing Policy for Dataverse Environments in Power Platform for Azure Pay-As-You-Go plan | Microsoft Azure

Setting up Billing Policy

Skip requirement to enter authentication method in M365 Login | Turn off Security Defaults

Turn Off Security Defaults in Azure Portal

Logging in without Security Defaults

Create Application Users for Dynamics 365 environment | Power Platform Admin Center

Classic UI

Register App in Power Platform Admin Center [PPAC]

Setup Postman to connect to Dynamics 365 CRM using OAuth 2.0 | Azure App Registration

Register an App in Azure

Setting up Postman

Testing using Postman

OAuth 2.0 URL for Dynamics 365

URL for OAuth2.0 for Dynamics 365 CRM

Azure Admin Portal

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Data Export (Preview)

Data Export to Data Lake

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Resource Group and Storage Account

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Azure Storage Explorer

Sign In with Azure in Microsoft Storage Explorer

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Setting up Billing Policy

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Login to DevOps

Create Org from Azure Portal

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Turn Off Security Defaults in Azure Portal

Logging in without Security Defaults

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Classic UI

Register App in Power Platform Admin Center [PPAC]

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Register an App in Azure

Setting up Postman

Testing using Postman

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URL for OAuth2.0 for Dynamics 365 CRM

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